When Harris Dickinson first seems in Halina Reijn’s attractive, slippery “Babygirl,” he’s bought a canine deal with in his hand and a nervous twinkle in his eye. As he charms an indignant pup, a terrified and barely thrilled Nicole Kidman watches simply down the road, now secure from the snapping maw of the beforehand out-of-control canine. The implication is obvious: right here is somebody who can soothe even the wildest of creatures. Perhaps that may prolong to Kidman’s Romy?
She — and the viewers — discover out the reply quickly sufficient. In Reijn’s erotic thriller, Romy’s tightly managed existence as each a high-powered CEO and a loving spouse and mom is thrown into full disarray by the arrival of alluring intern Samuel (Dickinson). As the pair embark on a kinky, sex-positive BDSM relationship, each of them open themselves to simply about the whole lot: pleasure, ache, break, George Michael dance events, convention room-set seductions, heart-stopping realizations, a number of orgasms, and finally one thing like self-actualization.
For rising star Dickinson, slipping into Samuel’s knotty (and naughty) persona was the form of scary prospect he’s at all times sought out, even when it did require him to do one thing somewhat loopy to appease his nerves: ignore the Nicole Kidman of all of it. Well, attempt to.
Dickinson first met Kidman a number of months earlier than the movie went into manufacturing in December 2023. As he recounted the story to IndieWire throughout morning espresso in New York City’s NoMad neighborhood — funnily sufficient, simply a few blocks away from distributor A24’s workplaces — he laughed a bit, realizing how the setup was going to sound. “I really met her on the Met Gala,” he stated. “I went over to her, and I used to be like, ‘Hello, I’m Harris, we’re going to be doing “Babygirl” collectively.’ And she checked out me for perhaps 4 seconds, which felt like an eternity, and she or he stated, ‘Oh, Harris, after all.’ And then she gave me a hug.”
Dickinson stays in awe of Kidman, even now, each as an individual and a performer. “She is the definition of iconic, isn’t she?” Dickinson stated of his co-star. “Beyond her apparent bodily benefits as a human, she is simply extremely fascinating to observe. You watch her in ‘Moulin Rouge!,’ ‘Dogville,’ ‘Birth,’ and there’s someway a door that she opens to her soul and feelings that so many individuals can’t. You really feel that whenever you’re working along with her as effectively. She’s dangerous, she’s courageous with what she does, she tries stuff. She’s not afraid to place it on the market and see the way it feels and really feel it out.”
So, sure, Dickinson was nervous about not simply starring reverse Kidman however doing the entire issues (ahem) that his Samuel does to her character Romy. To overcome these jitters, Dickinson stated, he tried to slide into a really Samuel-esque state of mind.
“I did must suppress my nerves,” he stated. “I believe one of the simplest ways for me to navigate the movie along with her, as Samuel, was [to] fake that I didn’t know something about her, like I’d by no means seen her in movies. I didn’t wish to ask her about something. I wanted to method this like she was just a few random boss to me, as a result of in any other case, I don’t suppose I might’ve been in a position to do such … I imply, he’s fairly impolite to her at instances. He says fairly daring issues to her!”
Yes, the primary time Romy sees Samuel, he’s calming down that random canine. But the primary time he sees her? Really sees her? He’s being a little bit of a jerk to the lady who runs the very firm he’s simply been employed, and he does it contained in the sanctum of her glossy workplace, in entrance of a pack of fellow interns and her devoted second-in-command Esme (Sophie Wilde). He’s ballsy, however Dickinson may solely maintain that for thus lengthy, at the very least when the cameras stopped rolling.
“He’s always poking her and being fairly brazen to her,” he stated. “So, I used to be like, ‘The solely method I can do that is if I simply actually ignore the Nicole Kidman of all of it to get myself by means of it.’ Toward the tip of the job, I might, slowly, slowly begin to be like, ‘How was Kubrick? How was von Trier?’”
Dickinson’s nerves kicked in even earlier than he met Kidman. They began with Reijn’s script. The actor’s doozy of a 2022 manufacturing schedule — “A Murder on the End of the World” into “The Iron Claw” after which on to “Blitz” — had been placed on pause by the strikes, and there was a while to contemplate what he actually needed to pursue subsequent. Mostly, he needed to be scared.
“All I do know is that I believe, ‘OK, what have I simply accomplished? How can I do one thing subsequent that may be a little completely different?’” the actor stated in relation to selecting his roles. “All I search out is one thing that I’ve not accomplished, or one thing that’s going to push me and problem me in a method. And then ‘Babygirl’ got here alongside, and I used to be barely afraid of it, as a result of I didn’t know how I used to be going to do it. That’s at all times attention-grabbing, as a result of then you definately’re confronted with your personal insecurities and your personal incapacity to grasp one thing, so that you then get excited by that. I suppose that’s what I’m on the lookout for: an pleasure, a little bit of concern.”
Reijn provided an area wherein Dickinson stated he felt snug doing the scary factor, of actually surrendering to the method and the story. “Ultimately, I simply wish to be in good cinematic palms in a world the place I can step into it and belief it,” he stated. “I liked Halina’s work, so it was straightforward for me to have the ability to say ‘OK, I give up.’ That’s all we wish, is to have the ability to give up to the filmmaker. At least, I do. Not solely is she radically sincere along with her work, however she’s in her personal life as effectively. When I can get on a degree with somebody and be open like that, it makes it a lot simpler. But I’m very open, I’m very weak, I’m not scared to be weak. My household had been very open and inspired emotional dialogue, so I really feel I’ve bought a superb entry to that. And I’m simply conscious that in the event you defend it and don’t discover that entry, then your work goes to be faux. That clearly [is going to be] weak as a result of it’s important to attempt to expose your self within the course of.”
Dickinson caught himself, paused, and laughed a bit. “Jesus, hearken to me. What the fuck am I speaking about?”
In some methods, he’s speaking concerning the sort of issues he’s at all times been speaking about, at the very least because it applies to his work. Before Dickinson’s first movie function, in Eliza Hittman’s 2017 Sundance stunner “Beach Rats,” we sat throughout from one another in one other room, ingesting completely different caffeinated drinks, speaking about his method to work. At the time, it appeared clear the actor was destined for giant issues. It additionally appeared clear he was open to all types of experiences (like “Babygirl,” Hittman’s movie required Dickinson to shot quite a few intercourse scenes).
Almost a decade later, Dickinson nonetheless will get a bit dazed reflecting on that point in his life. “I don’t suppose I understood what I used to be in for, even with Sundance, I knew somewhat bit concerning the historical past and Redford and all that,” Dickinson stated. “And then I bear in mind getting a name that I bought nominated for a Gotham Award, and I used to be on the practice, and I used to be like, ‘Oh, cool.’ And my group had been like, ‘No, no, no, it is a very massive deal.’ You don’t perceive it till you’re out of it, actually.”
How did he image what issues could be like, virtually eight years later? “I clearly had massive ambitions, however I didn’t have grand expectations,” he stated. “I had lots of ambition. As quickly as I did ‘Beach Rats’ and as quickly as I used to be amongst all of these movies at Sundance, I spotted, Jesus, I must be on this world of cinema.”
He appears to remain immersed in these worlds, lengthy after taking pictures has ended. We don’t be taught lots about Samuel all through Reijn’s movie — he actually does appear to simply present up someday, and no matter scant particulars he presents Romy usually really feel faux, little lies, not true but additionally not likely obligatory. How do you construct a personality from that? He remembers completely.
“There was a specific amount of unreliable details about Samuel, and even unreliable dialogue that’s within the script that I loved and I leaned into, to not be too particular with what the parameters of him had been,” Dickinson stated. “I knew that he was residing in a really low cost space of New York, making an attempt to make ends meet. I knew that he was working two jobs. I knew that he had a directness to him, that was clear to me. The story of his household was murky. He talks about his father in a method that has lots of, let’s say, embellishment to it. I discovered that to be fairly thrilling for me, to not have too many specificities of him and his journey.”
One factor that additionally helped: the sense that Samuel may exist completely in Romy’s creativeness. Dickinson performed him “very a lot in the true world,” however that further layer of playfulness, of teasing, appealed. “Halina and I spoke about it, there’s a world wherein he may very well be a complete figment and never of the true world,” she stated. “If we’re taking a look at it from a fairy story perspective, then there’s a world wherein he may have existed solely to assist Romy’s journey.”
And whereas Reijn’s movie ends with a tidy conclusion for Romy, what occurs to Samuel stays rather more open-ended. “He seems after which he disappears. That was the concept with him. There was no level in making an attempt to complete his story, as a result of it finally wasn’t about him; it was about them and Romy,” he stated. “I believe he’s nonetheless unresolved. He nonetheless didn’t resolve what his factor is. This is one thing he’s most likely going to must navigate for the remainder of his life till somebody helps him perceive himself a bit extra. Or he’s 50, and he buys a bike pondering he can fulfill one thing, and it doesn’t work. Or the tables are turned.”
Those tables, I’m guessing, can be of the attractive selection, with Samuel changing into a Romy to another person. When I point out the obvious prudishness of the youthful generations today, Gen Z-ers and Zoomers who’re fairly forthright with their dislike of onscreen depictions of intercourse and romance, Dickinson nods and provides, “It’s so true.”
What, then, does he make of a few of those self same potential viewers members going, as they could say, feral for warm sequences involving him and Kidman? Recently, his co-star mentioned the potential for some out-of-hands memes and the wish to hit the online, the type that may even make her “terribly upset.”
“Yeah, a GIF or a meme,” he stated. “How does one put together for that, aside from not take a look at it or simply giggle at it? It’s all so foolish and humorous. I’m one that may self-deprecate. I wish to be taken the piss out of, perhaps till it’s offensive. People are going to take issues and run with them and be narrow-minded or no matter or take one thing out of context. I believe it’s simply accepting that the whole lot past that is out of my management. I attempt to not be a management freak about that stuff. Maybe that’s why I wish to management a lot in my very own head or my very own self.”
Mostly, he’d just like the potential meme-maker and GIF-grabbers to contemplate the content material of the movie itself. “It’s not exploitative and it’s so tasteful. There’s no precise express nudity, actually,” he stated. “Nicole has greater than me. I don’t suppose Halina was within the fanaticism of intercourse scenes in movie or the romanticism of it. She talks about it. The hottest factor [for her] is the [scene with the] milk.” The scene in query sees Samuel ordering Romy a glass of milk throughout a company-wide blissful hour, which she dutifully drinks, acquiescing to a requirement each attractive and unusual.
As Reijn informed me final week throughout a post-screening Q&A for the WGA, that incident was pulled from a real-life expertise she had years in the past. That’s the form of radical honesty Reijn goes for, the sort of real-world vulnerability Dickinson naturally vibes to.
Some of Dickinson’s greatest work, at the very least by my estimation, has been with feminine administrators keen to go the additional mile for that veracity, that openness. Dickinson works with feminine filmmakers at a excessive clip: Reijn, Hittman, Joanna Hogg, Charlotte Regan, Olivia Newman, Jennifer Yuh Nelson, the listing is stacked for an actor with lower than 20 movie credit.
“I don’t know,” Dickinson stated when requested if this was intentional or incidental. “I imply, I believe that it’s considerably been a combination of each, and the those who I’ve linked with and tales they’re telling that I’ve linked with. I used to be raised predominantly by a single mother. I get alongside very effectively with girls, I at all times have… I at all times discovered there’s a tenderness and an emotional intelligence [with women] that lots of males usually don’t come at issues with.”
He added, “I don’t wish to shit on males. I’ve labored with some beautiful males as effectively which have that emotional intelligence. But I believe that typically egos get in the way in which with males.” He pointed to his “Iron Claw” filmmaker Sean Durkin for example of a “tremendous delicate, beautiful, emotionally succesful man,” somebody a part of “the identical ilk” as filmmakers like Reijn, Hittman, and Regan.
We find yourself circling again to the subjects of emotional intelligence, tenderness, and vulnerability. (We agreed that even his function in Ruben Östlund’s raucous class comedy “Triangle of Sadness” leans on male vulnerability. “It’s fairly weak. Very weak. Probably too weak!” he stated with fun). Maybe that’s the important thing to his selections?
“If it’s not there, then what are you doing? I imply, how will you not faucet into that?” he stated. “I’m such an emotional individual. Maybe it’s simply been with the administrators I’ve labored with and the roles I’ve been given. But it feels prefer it’s bought to be there, at all times, in my thoughts.”
A24 will launch “Babygirl” in theaters on Wednesday, December 25.
